Eternal Conflict
by guitarboy342
Summary: Eternal Conflict- Karino is a scientist working on ground breaking research. But when an accident happens and he's thrown into the world of the soul reapers. Can he help Ichigo and his friends before it's too late?
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

A calamity of epic proportions

**I implore **_**all**_** readers to review the scientific background **section before continuing towards the story. Though I anticipate that my advice will remain unheeded to a majority of bipedal peoples, I say to them that any difficulty in comprehension caused by thus is their own fault for not adhering to conceptual standards of understanding _something_!…anything?…eh. Note that I will attempt to refrain from over articulating my sentences during the literature's development.

**A/N:** I'm making this story in order to incorporate feedback on how acceptable the concepts, which are utilized in the story, are to a general audience.

Scientific Background:

(Note that all examples of technology in this story are scientifically feasible through the utilization of aether physics or otherwise) Aether is a widely unrecognized though important discovery by Nicola Tesla. It is one of the many lesser known accomplishments of Nicola Tesla's lifetime and career. It is a substance that is atomically neutral and resides in the spaces between sub-atomic particles. It can overlap itself in the same space given proper conditions to do so. The severities of the effects that aether causes are mainly dependant on the aetherical density. The types of effects are dependant on the cumulative aspects of the aetherical fluctuations, frequency, patterns, and imprinted aetherical charge. Aether can have an "imprinted" effect from what it experiences. This is the aspect that makes it a genuinely key part in memory retention and the function of the nervous system. It is the scientific embodiment of a "soul", to say frankly. The particles that emanate from stars are considered to be "stabilized", While the varied forms that exist within planets or living beings are considered "un-stabilized" (in most cases…). The particles that emanate from the majority of suns are characteristically the same, not including the factor of density. In essence, our body's are systemized to have a collaboration of aether particles remain destabilized as the system continuously re-destabilizes stabilized particles, as well as the utilization of those particles for retention methods (like with instincts or regular day to day memory) and potentially much more. Aetherical disturbances, to whatever scale, are present in even the most minuscule reactions and events. So a reaction like fire can be instigated by the presence of the resembling patterns, fluctuations, ECT (think of pyrokinesis). Though that is one of the most effective examples for implementations, the limitations are potentially logarithmic (in other words virtually limitless) for the total number of, and every type of implementation that exists and how beneficial (or catastrophic) they could be. Anyway I've pretty much given a summarized run-through sooo… if any questions are still prevalent about this topic, or a small number of other topics, please feel free to post your query. Mind the fact that I don't have internet at my house and I may not get to people rapidly so if your question remains unanswered for an extended period of time please try again. (He he, I sound like a message recorder)

**Shielding:** The shielding that karino uses is a setup of quartz spheres with high purity placed at significant points of articulation and the end points of the extremities. This is so that the "bubble" of protection protects the entire body. This "bubble" I speak of is the concentrated isolation of aether particles in a reverberating stream pattern to and from various points on the body. The setup works so that any construct moving at high velocity will distort the aether's frequencies temporarily; in doing so cause a visual phenomenon that would translucently reveal the portion of shielding surrounding the impact point. Normally the shielding would constantly be distorting on account of the radiation that we perceive as light and the other "background" radiations. To compensate for this, a quarts computation device is tied into the shielding and other systems that use the quarts for initialization. Since this computation device is based on the numerical sequences of aetherical flow through and inside quarts, and that the size of quartz it's housed in is four centimeters in diameter, the total approximate memory capacity is 8000 terabytes. To simplify expression I will simply refer to it as a q-computer. This q-computer keeps a log of the acceptable matter and conditions for permeation, thus allowing non-harmful matter to permeate the shield even if it's moving at the speed of light. Along with this the deadly frequencies of energy can be filtered by the computer storing frequency and wavelength data as well as velocity data for registered contact. However, it would be insurmountably difficult to prevent something teleporting inside the barrier of the shield since aether can coexist in the same point in space, at the same instant. So in light of this, and the fact that the technology used will still be considered a prototype I will not include the quality of preventing something from teleporting inside the shield. A good reference to the relevance of the statement in the preceding sentence is that I consider the "flash step" and the "sonito" teleportation techniques utilized by the "aetherically experienced". Though clearly in the story it is referred to as having strong "spiritual pressure" (AKA aetherical density), it would remain the same essential aspect if you were to replace every mention of "spirit energy" with aether particles in some form or another.

**Teleportation:** The short-long distance teleporter incorporates the same utilized system of quartz spheres used in a slightly different manor. Though while executing long range teleportation, powering down the shields for at least ten to fifteen minuets is necessary. Maximum distance for short range is about five to ten kilometers at prime conditions with the technology incorporated in the story. Maximum distance for long range teleportation is exponential according to how long the shields have remained inactive, and as long as the ending location is secure and known by the teleporter there _usually_ aren't severe repercussions from teleporting more than fifty kilometers… though the more mass being teleported the more aetherical charge required. So in most cases deactivation of shields is vital when teleporting more than one person/thing at a time.

**A.A.P.:** the Antimatter Assimilation Pistol is a weapon that utilizes the deconstructive capabilities of antimatter and the physical force capabilities of aether manipulation. Resulting in a pistol that fires antimatter, which has adjustable structures (dependant on the atoms collected), at adjustable velocities (which logically shouldn't be under 2000 m/s due to the insignificant mass of a single antimatter structure). Mass can be collected most effectively as a gas or a liquid, unless the solid mass is ground into a powder whose particulates are so minuscule that a quick wind could dissolve them into the atmosphere. When a "shot" is fired from this pistol and the fired ammunition comes in contact with a target the antimatter destabilizes the atomic structure of any particles in vicinity, which is dependant on the type of antimatter fired. For the sake of this story let's say that the smallest destabilization radius is 3 centimeters and the max is 8 kilometers (not considering the possibility of acquiring any heavy atomic structures like uranium, promethium, terbium, ECT.

**Q-computer:** a computation device based on the principle of numeric sequencing of the flow of aether in and through a quartz body of high purity. This method of computation is exponentially faster and more efficient than that of any binary sequence computation device utilizing metallic conduction that exists. Using a q-computer, one can do a plethora of tasks. For example, one can deconstruct then reconstruct matter based on the atomic particles that make that matter up. So if you were to take 40 grams of sodium and reconstructed it into gold, the mass would stay relatively the same but with a significant volume decrease. Levitation is also a feasible application if mental manipulation of aether in that manor isn't accomplishable by the individual. Also, three dimensional display viewing, in the manifestation of a hologram, is usable for such a device. Otherwise the capacities are in the shielding description and anything else that I'm informed about I'd be glad to explain further over a chat.

A/N: I hope the background helped, so enjoy!

Character Background:

Karino is a quantum physicist who majored in quantum mechanics in college. He currently works at a research facility near the outskirts of karakura town. He is 22 years old and has raggedy cranberry colored hair and dark blue eyes. Most of the time his "anywhere" attire consists of a white zip-up lab-coat over a white button-shirt, grey pants, and sneakers. Currently, he delves into the study of aether physics and its potential applications, creating various devices/contraptions in the progress.

Karino's P.O.V.

Roused from sleep by my annoying alarm clock I realized that I had been sleeping at my computer again, reviewing test data for the shield. I look at what I was wearing. My clothes hadn't been changed for two nights and were very uncomfortable, so I guess I'll just walk over to my house and get a change of clothes. I quickly logged of my computer and stood up to go to the bathroom when I spotted my co-worker Anosuke, staring into the blank wall away from me. Instead of bothering him right now I just decided to sneak past and go to the bathroom. After using the bathroom I went down the stairs to the left and reached the device storage room. I was about to pass by the AAP when I realize it's probably better to take it. After all, with all the strange beasts and attacks recently, a little experimental protection is a necessary precaution. So I grabbed the holster and rapped the belt around my waist. Then I made sure that my shield was active and running by checking my diagnostics unit disguised as a watch. Its form certainly helps me look, at least, a little less conspicuous. So I turn to the safe lock door leading to the front office which we usually use as a lobby of sorts for test subjects. Once I reach the front door I open it and am blinded by the intensity of the sun. I wait for my eyes to adjust and walk along the sidewalk. After I reached my house I strapped on a new set of clothes and begin to go back outside when I received a call from Anosuke. "Hey Karino, we ran out of utility wire and heat clamps, can you get some while you're out?" "Yea I think we also need some more bread so I'll get that to." I replied. Anosuke hung up the phone and I reached for the keys in my pocket. _I know he's just a co-worker and all but he could at least be a bit less cold about everything_. I managed to get the utility wire and clamps and was in the store behind an old lady who was taking her time counting her change. While I was waiting for her to finish I looked around and saw a teen with orange hair. _Orange? I didn't even know it could grow like that_. He noticed me looking when a girl with black hair wearing a skirt grabbed his attention and drew him towards something. I noticed then that the old lady was pretty much finished and so I bought the bread and a candy bar and went back to the lab, eating the candy on the way. I got into the lobby and noticed the clock said it was about 11 a.m. so I went into the lab to find Anosuke. He happened to be typing on the computer tied with the control system for the gate way. "How's it going?" I asked. "Really, this energy flux is giving me a problem. And your program's calculations seem to be giving the gateway an oscillating effect." We spent the next 7 hours troubleshooting the system and the next 4 hours setting up the new utility wire to the gate. "Do you _really_ think that we'll reach another plain?" Anoske inquired. "Well, probably. And if not it could always be a useful _and_ fun garbage disposal." Anoske chuckled that comment off and continued wiring. "… Okay! I think tomorrow the physical testing can begin. But for now I think I'm done." "Why, are you tired?" Anoske interjected "well duh! We've been working for over 11 hours and I actually want to get some good sleep tonight. Anyway I'll see you in the morning" so I walked up the stairs past the office and into the hallway to look a door that has 'temporary living quarters' written on it. _Ha! Temporary, I sleep here most of the time anyway_. I then went to sleep to be woken by the sound of rustling in the office across from my room. _Heh. Must be frantic about finding some kind of data. Probably best to find out in the morning_. So with that I fell asleep, again, for the night. I woke up in the morning and stretched a few times. When I got into the kitchen to the right of me Anosuke was sitting at the table drinking coffee. He looked at me with a disgruntled look on his face. He set down the coffee and stared at me seriously. "So, when are you going to stop wearing that silly contraption to bed?" "As soon as you actually go to bed. How many days has it been since you got a good nights sleep?" he then progressed to scowl at me but didn't respond. _Damn. Anosuke was always hostile but the stress of the testing must be getting to him_. "I'm going to go down and initiate the sequence protocol. You coming?" I asked "In a little bit. I want to finish my coffee first." So I walked down to the lab deciding that perhaps I should've asked about last night. The initial runs went fine. But then the program I set up started initiating excessive currents non-coherent to what it was supposed to be setting. At once the gate fired open and let out a sonic boom. Almost all the glass in the room shattered along with one of the two monitors. So I quickly pulled out my backup copy of the program and set it in to the computers. The gate wasn't receiving any stabilization input of any kind so it randomly blasted different objects to the wall, at one point throwing the chair that was next to me. By then the program was installed and the throwing subsided so I waited a second to see a dark form starting to shape at the center of the gate so I decided to start the shutdown procedure and the dark image diminished. The whole lab was in a mess so I headed for the door when Anosuke called to me "what the hell happened?" "Something was different in the program and it malfunctioned. I managed to stop it before the gate actually caused any real damage but I'm going to go downstairs and check if I tripped any breakers in the process." Anosuke seemed to shirk of what I said, and go in front of the monitor to start fiddling with some of the display. I continued to the device room and went down the stairwell to the basement. When there, I opened the circuit panel and saw that nothing was out of the ordinary when the whole building started rumbling and stopped with a loud crash. I bolted up to the lab to find Anosuke on his back staring at where the second floor once was. "What happened?" Anosuke just gaped in horror trying respond to my question so I decided to teleport out of the lab and find whatever had torn off the second floor to the building. I went past several houses when I heard an ear piercing scream that seemed to echo in my head. It came from my left so I continued in that direction until I saw what seemed to be a beast as large as several houses and wearing a mask. It was looking the opposite direction so I grabbed for the AAP when it seemed to have constituted some sort of cut through its side and began disintegrating before my eyes. Once it disappeared there seemed to be a figure that was near it wearing a black kimono. _Is that the kid from the store?_ As I thought this, the boy noticed me so I teleported back to the lab to see how Anosuke was doing after that incident. Once there I saw that he was tampering with the computer and the gate was active again. "What the hell are you doing?" I yelled. Anosuke twisted around with a worried look on his face when the gateway opened completely, Causing all the equipment in the lab to be sucked into it. Anosuke was holding on to a support beam that was faltering so to shut down the gate I went for the power cables and shot enough rounds at it to completely disconnect it. Before I knew what was happening the gate drastically increased suction towards it and Anoske got sucked in. I was barely standing on my feet when the desk behind me got thrown up and knocked me into the gateway. I awoke with a sharp pain in my side and a splitting headache. _Holy shit! How the hell am I alive?_ I stood up to find myself in an open field with a few shards of the lab equipment scattered around me. I looked up and saw what seemed to be a large crack in the sky leading to a dark abyss. _I wonder where Anosuke is._ Just then something crawled out of the crack before it sealed up. It landed a few yards away from me and started charging at me. _Another one of those beasts? What are these things anyway?_ I decided it would be safest to at least cripple it so it didn't come any closer. I got my hands on my pistol and changed the settings so it would fire a high frequency energy blast. I shot the thing on the leg and it toppled over, but it still seemed to be trying to reach me while screaming so I supposed that it wasn't a negotiable creature and shot it in its mask. After the second shot a man in a black kimono showed up and demanded that I come peacefully. "Hmm, I don't see why not." So he led me to what seemed to be a style of prison cell that, for some reason, emitted some sort of aetherical charge. _Huh, weird day_.

5


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Threads of Fate

Sitting in the cell, for what seemed to be hours, doing nothing but sitting on the bed and staring at the wall was as unbearable as reading the fanfic titled "My Immortal". Eventually I heard foot steps coming down the hallway. I pondered what position would be the least threatening within the first 20 minuets of imprisonment, so I laid flat out on the bed looking at the ceiling. The person who walked up had somewhat long black hair that had metallic looking clips at the front and the right side of his head. The black kimono he was wearing was covered by a white one that had several detailing markings. _Probably some sort of high ranking individual. I wonder what that means he's like_. "So… my name's karino, what's yours?" he barely seemed to react to what I just said. "It's Byakuya. State your business in the soul society." "Soul what?" I responded "I barely know what kind of place I'm in let alone why I got here." He was consistently wearing what seemed to be a perma-frown the whole time he was there. "What is your intention here?" "My intention!" I interjected as a sat up. I then fell back onto the bed and continued. "The only thing that I _intended_ today was to follow your cultures procedures to see what I could find." "What do you mean?" "I mean that I need to find another way back to my aetherical plane. You do believe me, right? Or at least do you have some sort of understanding of what I'm saying." "Don't question my intelligence." He retorted sternly. _Damn! What's with the cold ass attitude on this guy?_ "That's not what I meant. I think that there has to be some way to travel through dimensions again. Even if you guys don't have the capabilities already, I would prefer to at least try with the resources available. And in return I am willing to construct devices that could benefit your society, as long as they are not used for… war. Any way, in any respect I do not wish any harm upon any being as long as they don't deserve it. Though that doesn't mean I'll exact punishments outside of the law either. Anyway, aside from my rambling what have you decided to do with me?" "That's not for me to decide. You'll have to take that up with the head captain." "Huh, well as long as I don't get locked up for being thought of as crazy I think I'm fine with that." So he guided me to a large gate that was very impressive. When the doors opened, they revealed a row on either side of the room of what seemed like officials. And in the very back was an ancient old man with a long beard and bald head. His eyes seemed to be clenched tight and he was hunched over leaning on a cane. _Whelp, he's definitely their leader. Which means that he's either the most powerful or the wisest_… once I glanced at him his stair seemed to look into my soul, shivers ran up my spine. …_or both_! Byakuya took a lineup on one of the sides of the room and I took center. I felt all of their gazes upon me. "Speak now!" the head captain said with a booming voice. "O-oh yeah!" I looked down at the floor, put my left hand in one of my pockets, started rubbing my chin, and began to explain the precarious circumstances that led to my arrival to the soul society, in great detail. There were points at which the way that I explained things required clarification through terms they were familiar with. The most involved in these questionings seemed to be a man in disturbing headgear and face paints named Kurosutchi. After the explanation the head captain seemed to take an endless amount of time to respond. "For now we will provide you with temporary living quarters. We expect full cooperation in any orders given by any lieutenant or higher class soul reaper. We will later decide what to do with you after that." "Of course," I replied "that sounds perfectly reasonable." And with that the meeting was dismissed. Soifon was told by the head captain to escort me to my chosen quarters. A few minuets after leaving the silence between us became awkward for me. "Soo… it seems as though something significant happened here to get you all worried. Would you be able to tell me?" I waited a few seconds. "Hello?" _I hope that all the people here aren't as cold as this_. *sighs*_ though I guess that it's natural considering that I am a form of intruder through their perspective_. Soifon glares at me for a second and then looks forward again. "To me you're just another riouka. I don't trust you enough to tell you anything." "Oh… yeah." We walked the rest of the way without communicating. She stops at the door of a small barrack that has one story and seems to be in average condition. She opens the door "get in." so that's what I do. After two steps into the barrack I see that there are only three rooms. One is a bathroom, one is a bedroom, and one seems to be some sort of recreational room. The recreation room has a small woodstove in the corner, the bedroom has one bed without a pillow but with a blanket, but otherwise the whole house seemed empty. "Thanks I think I can work with…" but as I turned around, I saw she seemed to have disappeared. "Oh well. I guess I'll get to work." I took a few moments to bring up a few routines on the q-computer's hollow display to prepare for the reconstruction of any available waste matter. Done with that, I went out the back door to see an insignificant portion of yard and a small space for growing plants which was infested with weeds. I deconstructed the plant matter to a few volumes of liquid and solid base elements, the few gasses that were produces just escaped. I levitated the collective materials and managed to construct two small chairs, and a pillow. The material that was left wasn't nearly sufficient to produce anything else useful so I loaded it into the AAP and was about to head back outside to find something else when there was a quick knock on the door so I went to it. I opened it to reveal a tall woman with black braided hair. "Um… is there something you need?" I asked. "Master Mayuri demands your presence." "Huh? Well I guess that's ok. What does he need?"… "Come with me." _Huh? Something's off about her…_ We walk a few paces and I get a chill down my spine. "Uuuh… I think I've changed my mind. If Mayuri decides that he wants to talk to me I'll be at the shack. "Sorry." She responded. _Hmmm_. As I turn to go towards the shack I feel that she's preparing to strike at me so I whip around, teleport behind her and precede to teleport her to the place that I know I can do safely, "_Sorry!_" I mock sarcastically as she wisps away before my eyes. _I wish I knew the location of that guys personal quarters but the meeting hall is going to have to do for now_. I chuckle thinking about her reaction, or the reaction of someone who may be in there as well. I then proceed to my room. _Well I guess that it's been a pretty eventful day but I should go to bed_. Just before closing my eyes I realize that, considering the insident with the woman, I should keep my shield at full. So I adjust a few settings and fall asleep.

**Inside the meeting hall:**

Kyoraku and Ukitake walk up to the head captain. "What are you planning on doing about the riouka?" Kyoraku asked. "I will decide upon further investigation." With that Nemu appears right behind Kyoraku and Ukitake, a little confused. "Lieutenant! What is the meaning of this." Head captain ordered. "I need to speak with master Mayuri." And with that she left the room.

**Karino's POV:**

I woke up not knowing what time it was. I decided that it was best to get some start on the research I need to understand their culture. So I got up and went to the bathroom, only to find something I didn't notice before; a white kimono that was folded up with a pair of sandals on top. _Hmm… not really my style, but I don't really want to let it go to waste_… so I reconstructed the kimono and sandals into a new set of the same clothes I'm wearing. I then changed into those and deconstructed the old clothes into raw materials, proceeding to compact it into a portable size and stuff it in my pocket. "Just right!" then I leave the barrack to look for information. My search at first leads me nowhere. Everyone gives me looks of disdain, worry, or irritation. Anyone that I talk to seems to be highly intimidated or on the offensive. Until I eventually find a small captain named Toshiro who points me to the department of development and research, and tells me that there is a library there that should help. To thank him for his kindness I construct him a mint from the raw material in my pocket and give it to him. "I'M NOT A KID!" he shouts angrily and then storms off grumbling to himself. _Was it something I said? Huh._ I then proceed to the department of research and development. When I reach the building I realize something. _Wait a minuet! Isn't Mayuri in charge of this department_? I cautiously open the door and get directions from a few people down the way to the library. _I'm glad that I haven't run into Mayuri or that lieutenant of his_. Once I reached the library I found all the answers to the questions I had about this society and more. Most importantly I found much correlative information to my research, and that they already have a way back to what they call the world of the living. By the time I had my fill of info, it was pitch black outside. I finished putting all the books away when the door to the hallway opened. "Hello?" I mumbled. "Intriguing!" I spun around to find Mayuri directly behind me "Boy, come with me." "Um, I don't really wan…" "Don't toy with me!" he interjected. I began to back away when he yelled "NEMU!" a swift hand came from behind and wacked me on the shield around my neck. The look of surprise on each of their faces was astonishing to me. So before anything really bad happened I teleported out of the library and back to my barrack. _Whew! That was probably not good but I think their faces made up for it. Hmm._ I went to my bed taking in what had happened the past few days. _It's never going to be the same again, is it?_ With that I went to sleep. In my dreams I opened my eyes to see what seemed to be a surreal view of space. There were several galaxies off in the distance and what seemed to be spherical masses scattered around me. Other than that and the stars in the distance, there wasn't much. I began hopping from asteroid to asteroid in an attempt to find something when I heard voices echoing around me. "Hello?" there was no response other than the voices getting louder and more pronounced. After continuing through the field of asteroids for a while, I saw a star growing in size while some of the asteroids hit it. While I gaze up at it, it starts to spit out arcs of molten plasma. And before I knew it, the whole thing exploded. I woke up in my bed sweating and hearing the voices fade. _Hmm._ I got up and washed my face, deciding that it's best to start an experiment today. "Back to work." After several hours of calculations I headed out of the barrack for a stroll. Along the way I asked many people where I could find an accumulation of garbage, but all the responses included looks of disgust all the way to running out of sight. Eventually I stumbled across a lieutenant called Renji who had a look of suspicion in his eyes. "I hear that you've been causing a lot of disturbances, tell me what you're trying to do." "Well… a lot of people seem to be acting abrasively towards me, and I'm starting to suspect that it has something to do with my attire." I responded. "What did you do with the kimono in the barrack?" he inquired. "Oh!" I brought out the lump of material in my pocket and he looked at it. "You turned it into that!" "Certainly not! I'm _wearing_ the material that _was_ the kimono. This is the lump I constructed from the materials of my worn clothes… minus the amount I turned into a mint for Toshiro." He seemed flabbergasted for a moment after I spoke "Oh! And I'd like to have some sort of meeting with the captains when they're available, thanks." So I walked off back to the barrack leaving Renji there with an odd expression on his face. When I got back to the barrack I had collected a few articles of trash along the way. _I guess the rest will have to be extracted from the dirt in the back yard_. Once I had collected the materials I began the formation of a quartz sphere of complete purity. _It's a good thing there is so much ambient aetherical density otherwise this wouldn't be possible_. After it finished, I copied the information from my sphere into it, and it adhered almost immediately. _Wow even more efficient than I thought!_ So I put the 6 centimeter sphere in the modified holder on the inside of my lab jacket. "Perfect fit!" I then set up the old sphere to provide an access-only shield flowing through the walls, floor, and ceiling of the barrack so any solar radiation wouldn't adversely effect the field. I placed it inside the woodstove and set it so the display would come out through the severed vent duct. "Fantastic!" so with a home base in order I prepare to go to sleep when I hear a knocking on the door. I tap my q-computer through the house one to see the person at the door and it seems to be Nemu. "Go away!" I yell. She appears to try and knock the door down, but is bounced back by the field. She seems to have just been confirming something because she just turns and walks away. _Guess I'll have to be expecting more of them from now on. I should also probably be more careful with any encounters with them_. So I just go to my bed and sleep.

**Next day at the meeting hall:**

"Is this information credible captain Kuchiki?" "The information was received through my lieutenant and a number of reliable sources." Byakuya replied. "I have had the stealth squad keep track of him, and can personally verify these facts." Soifon said. Then Kyoraku stepped forward with an idea "well he did ask for a meeting, lets offer him one. So he can explain himself", "So be it." Yammamoto decided.

**Karino's POV:**

I woke up to the sound of loud knocking at the door. "Coming!" I called. I looked at the q-computer and saw it was some bald dude. I opened the door and the look on his face gave me the oddest feeling he'd enjoy punching me… or getting punched. "There is a meeting going on. I was told that you're wanted there." "Oh" I replied. "Well I'll just test something out if you don't mind. Do you need to be there too?" "No, and you ne…" "Well I'm sorry but I need to test this out so I'm taking you there." I interrupted. With that, I doge his attempts to grab me while he's yelling something. At the same time I adjust the settings to teleport us both to the meeting hall and then engage the system. "Hold still." I say. Then we appear instantly in the middle of the meeting hall. Everyone immediately points there attention at me and the guy next to me. "Excuse me everyone, but I just wanted to test multi-person teleportation using my bald friend righ…" I sense the aetherical signals behind me and jump up to avoid an attack by the bald man using his sheath. "DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME BALD!" "Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to offend you, but I didn't know your name so I had to use a physical description. My name's Karino by the way." "Huh, my name's Ikkaku." Ikkaku then just walked out and shut the large doors. "I suppose I have a significant amount of explaining to do." "Then speak" retorted Yammamoto. "Well I've finally been able to construct a quartz computing sphere thanks to the ambient aetherical density, or reiastu, which is in this environment." I pull out the q-computer and several of the captains put their hands on their zanpakutos. "Relax, this is mainly harmless. I just need it for demonstration purposes." I set it down in front of me and brought several display functions into view. "This is a computation device that utilizes the numerical qualities of aether flowing inside and through high purity quartz. In the world of the living I was able to construct one of near complete purity with our technology. Using that I can deconstruct and reconstruct matter at an atomic level to make virtually anything. I used that one to make this one using raw materials. The articles of trash I collected provided the majority of the matter that I needed, and the rest I obtained from the dirt in the yard of the barrack I'm staying at. I assume that this isn't all that I need to explain, and I'm happy to answer most of any of your questions." As I waited for them to soak in all that I said, I picked up my q-computer and put it back in my pocket. "What's the type of flash-step you're using?" Toshiro asked. "Aah, that's not a flash-step exactly…" I pull off my lab jacket and shirt to reveal the quartz crystals strapped to my knees, arms, neck, and chest "these quartz crystals and the ones in my shoes and in these rings make an encompassing field of aether currents that deflect the force projected onto them back on to the intrusive object or objects... There _are_ limitations but I don't feel safe disclosing them right now." "How does the power source work for this system?" Kurosutchi asked. "… any other inquisitors." I passively retort, Kurosutchi then proceeds to grumble to himself. "Oh wait! I forgot the question was about the teleporting function…" I picked up my shirt and jacket and put them back on. "observe." I teleport five feet forward and then back again. "This is accomplishable by manipulating the properties of the shield and creating a flux of energy which any matter inside travels with, or in other words me. Though, as you saw earlier I can widen the reach of the shield to include two entities and teleport them both to the same location, or if the situation requires it different locations. In the world of the living I had already done this test to subjects with the old q-computer, which refers to the quartz computation device, and was successful. But I had made this yesterday, and I wanted to make sure that the increase in purity had no detrimental effects." "But what if it _didn't_ work?" asked captain Unohanna. "Well… if it didn't work both of our particles would've been distributed around the teleport destination or as a trail from start to finish. And the effect of that either would've been harmless but noticeable, harmless and unnoticeable, or catastrophically explosive. Anyway, that's why I always do calculations before testing since the one time I didn't, and wanted to test the teleportation with two objects, I ended up creating option three all over my driveway. It took at least a month to repair everything, and even then I'll never replace my faithful pets." *sniffles* "anyway, any more questions?" "What was the blast that was fired when the hollow arrived through the precipice world with you?" Byakuya inquired. "Excellent question!" I pull out the AAP and nearly every one grabs their zanpakutos. "Hey, hey. Even though this _isn't_ harmless, I don't plan on using it on any of you. Anyway as you can see this looks like a very odd version of a pistol from the world of the living. That's because it's my invention called the AAP which stands for Antimatter Assimilation Pistol. This pistol takes matter and through a process so complex I don't feel like explaining, it turns the matter atomically into antimatter. Antimatter destabilizes any matter around it at an atomic level. The radius of this effect depends on what matter, atomically, was used to produce antimatter. This however wasn't my invention. What was my part is the aetherical influences used to project forces onto the antimatter so that it, A, doesn't destroy the gun itself, and B, shoots the antimatter at an adjustable velocity. Another implementation, that I added only a few weeks ago, is to fire blasts of energy at adjustable frequencies and wavelengths. The one I used the day of the incident was a very high frequency energy blast… Now, through research into the subjects at the library I've found that that blast I used resembles a gran-rey cero, as you can see here." I proceeded to take out the lump of material from my pocket, shape it into a small square plate, and shoot the same blast mentioned at the plate creating a singed hole in the center. "Anything els…" as I was finishing that sentence, I felt a disturbingly powerful presence and everyone seemed to reciprocate the same feeling. "What was that?" I asked heading for the door. Once I opened it everyone rushed out of the room heading for somewhere. I teleported to the top of the building we were in to get a better view. There was another rip in the sky, but it was different than the one I came through. It also looked more like a mouth and it was greyer inside than pitch black. I went a few kilometers closer to the dots that were around it and I saw some freakishly pale figures with masks on there faces. There were three of them and one was looking right at me. He had a mask covering his face. _Hmm. His eye seems familiar_. "Karino!" the one looking at me shouted angrily. _He knows me?_ He flashed up and pounded his fist on me. The shield protected me from most of the impact but it was still horrendously painful. I crashed into a building off into the distance and awoke to find rubble all around me. _Well, I guess it's time to defend myself_. I look around for the materials I need. _Huh. Swords really are the best melee weapons… in most cases. I just hope this works_. I take the rubble and reconstruct it into a sword. I then meditate with the sword strewn across my lap. _I know that only a zanpakuto works well here so… let's see…_ I delve into meditation attempting to brand the blade with my essence. After several minuets I'm too deep in meditation to even worry about whether it's working or not. "_Karino…"_ a feeling of tense power flows through my arms and I stand up holding the sword in my right hand. "BLAST THEM AWAY… KONRYO" my sword turns into a shuriken, and materialized on my belt is a holder for it. I throw it up, catch it and throw it at the wall next to me. Then it explodes after a second, I look down at the holder and another one is there. "Awesome!" and I jump (AKA teleport) to battle with whatever adjucha that was.

5


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Alliance Progression

**Karino's POV:**

I jumped to within several feet of the adjucha and saw that he had spikes covering most of his body. He shot a cero at me from the spikes on his chest, so I narrowly dodged it and threw the kunai at the place he shot the cero from. The kunai exploded soon after impact and he was thrust back into a nearby building. He got up and flashed to the roof of the building next to him. "I'll destroy you karino!" he exclaimed. Then from out of nowhere a rip appeared next to him. From it came a pale skinned man that had black hair, piercing green eyes, a hole at the center of his collar bone, and a mask covering half of his head with a horn sticking out of it. He seemed to be wearing clothing that is similar to mine. "Aisen-sama requests your presence." With that the man pulls the adjucha through the rip, but as he does so he glares at me with disgust. "_Trash_." He says. The rip closes before I manage to get close to it, so I go to see what happened to the other two. On my way I saw the teen with orange hair coming at me with what seemed to be an abnormally large cleaver. _What's he doing here… and he's wearing a black kimono, huh._ "Hey! I remember you from the…" before I could finish he swung his sword at me, so I put my kunai up to block it. "What the hell! Why are you attacking me?" "First tell me why you're here, Arrancar!" he responded. Then the girl with black hair showed up and punched him on the head. "Gah! What was that for?!" "Idiot!" she retorted. "You don't just go charging into battle before thinking. Look at him, he doesn't have a mask, and he doesn't even have a hole! What makes you think that he's an Arrancar?" "Well… uhh." She then turns to me and punches me on the head as well. "And you! Why the hell are you wearing that in the middle of the soul society?" "Oh… I just never really like wearing anything el…" "Well, then getting attacked is your own fault if you're going to look like the enemy." She interjected. "Soo… my name's Karino, what are your names?" I asked. After greetings, we exchanged information on our situations. And I described the circumstances that led me into the soul society. Later a meeting was held to sort out what had happened. I went along with Ichigo and Rukia to the meeting hall. When we got there the meeting was just starting. "Take your places." Yammamoto said. We did so as the meeting continued. "We know that two of the adjuchas were taken care of by Ichigo, Rukia, and Renji…" Yammamoto said. "…but what happened to the third one?" "I fought off that one." I said. "But before I finished him off, a garganta opened and a man came out proceeding to abduct the adjucha before I could do anything." I described the man to them and they seemed to know who I was talking about. "He and another Arrancar showed up in karakura two weeks ago." Ichigo said. "They seem to be getting more active." Toshiro added. "So is somebody planning some kind of attack against you guys?" I asked. Yammamoto explained the circumstances surrounding Aizen and the espada/arrancar he had made. "Oh, so that's why you all were so suspicious of me… on another note, I should probably mention that I managed to forge a zanpakuto for my encounter with the adjucha." I stated. "How delightful!" I looked over to Mayuri, confused and disturbed, about how he just commented, and then stepped a few paces back shocked because I had not noticed how close I'd been standing the whole time. "GAAH! What the hell is with the smile on your face?! You look like a fucking demonic elf or something… and the headwear doesn't help a bit." Mayuri responded to that with silence as the meeting continued. He consistently stared at me for the rest of the meeting. So near the end of the meeting it was decided that Rukia and Ichigo will go back to the world of the living in three days. Since I couldn't bare the thought of risking another encounter with Mayuri, I volunteered to go as well. After the meeting and on the way back to the barrack that I was staying at, I was caught off guard by Nemu with a sharp syringe to my arm. The needle part slipped through the shield barely enough to penetrate my skin. I immediately started to fade out from whatever was in the syringe, and as a last resort I engaged an emergency protocol on my shield that I was able to implement because of the q-computer's purity. My body fell unconscious, but I was able to keep a portion of conscious activity running through my q-computer. I could only read the aetherical signatures around me, but I was able to ascertain that Nemu was carrying me awkwardly over her shoulder to Mayuri's laboratory. After a while of Mayuri trying to deactivate the shield I started to regain consciousness. The first thing I noticed was how eerie it was inside the lab. "Whoa! You are one crazy bastard!" when I said this he seemed to completely ignore it. "You must tell me what the limitations of your shield are. It's quite difficult." He said, proceeding to activate some sort of particle destabilizing contraption. "Well… the shield I would've been using from the old q-computer would've had the limitations I mentioned. But I'm using an updated protocol through the one I have now which is pure quartz. Since the old q-computer wasn't pure, engaging this would've been 97% likely to cause a malfunction that would prevent the shield from ever disengaging. So the way I have it now is that absolutely nothing can break the shields stability. And you can be assured that I wouldn't be telling you anything whatsoever about its functions if I wasn't at least 98% sure of its accuracy, and that it wouldn't come to an advantage of yours in the near future." After saying that I continued to lie on what seemed to be an operating table. I checked out some of the data from inside the room for over fifteen minuets before Mayuri said anything. "You can't teleport at all while doing that, can you?" he said with a smirk across his face. "I guess it is pretty obvious, isn't it? Anyway, there are other methods for getting out of here with this protocol active…" with that I adjusted a few settings, then phased through the restraints… and then the table. I made swimming motions to get a few feet away from the table and then stabilized the field a bit more so that I could stand on the floor. Meanwhile both Mayuri and Nemu did things from swiping at me, to firing things at me to try and stop me. "It's a good thing that the density of the material in your floor is denser then you, as well as most of your equipment and walls." As I left the room through one of the walls, the disconcerted look across Mayuri's face looked ridiculous enough, with his face paints, to cause me to laugh a little bit. Though this just made Mayuri look more furious than disconcerted, so I proceeded to hastily exit the department of research and development. On the way out I passed by a number of questionable experiments. _Hah! More like the clinic of ridiculous atrocities_. By the time I reached my barrack, I found out that I had been trapped for at least a day and a half. This, at best, would only leave me with a day to pack and get any last minuet experiments out of the way before I had to leave for the world of the living with everyone else. And I'm definitely not staying another day here with the looming threat of abduction by Mayuri Kurosutchi… or his assistant. Anyway, at my barrack I got the q-computer from the house and deconstructed the table and chairs. Then, I increased the density of the materials so I could fit them in a pocket. I found that it's too heavy for that to be efficient, so I made some of it into a simple backpack and stuffed the rest of the material inside of it. I put the backpack on and realized that the emergency shield is still on because the straps extended a few inches from my chest when it was strapped on. So I turned it back to its normal settings and continued to prepare for experiments. When I was about to go outside and get more dirt, a knock came from the door. _I guess that means no experiments today. Oh well._ I make a looking hole through the door and see that it's Ichigo and Rukia. I opened the door and greet them. "Hey, we came by yesterday but you didn't seem to be home." Ichigo said. "Well, I was a captive at Kurosutchi's lab ever since the meeting the other night." "Holy crap! Did he do anything to you?" Ichigo asked. "No, I was able to abate his efforts with an emergency shield I initiated before the drug that Nemu injected into me took effect. Aside from those situations, would you mind telling me where you two go to school?" "Karakura high, why?" Rukia responded. "Well it's just, that would explain why weird stuff seems to happen so frequently." "So, do you know were you're going to be staying when we get back to the world of the living?" Ichigo asked. "Well, my laboratory was probably left a crater by the accident, so I'm going to have to rebuild _that_ some other time. But I do have a house of my own that should be in-tact. Heck, you two could come over and visit sometime. I might be able to whip up something you could use during a battle or even on a day to day basis. Not to mention that it could be mutually beneficial if you were to be okay with me analyzing your aetherical composition…or, spirit energy… so as to see what findings I can discover. Though I hate intellectuals like Mayuri who abrasively conduct experiments regardless of the effects on the patients, and thusly resort to abducting their test subjects so you don't have to worry about me abducting you… oh, uh, sorry for rambling like that. I tend to get ahead of myself when I'm contemplating things during discussion." "Uh…That's okay." Ichigo said. "Aw man! I forgot that I got rid of the seats and table. I'll go and get them and some tea okay?" "I'd like coffee." Ichigo said. "Oh, sure." so I went to the yard to get a lot of dirt. Then I took the lump from my backpack and made three seat mats and a short table. I constructed three cups of tea and a teapot, some coffee, and rice balls, and then put everything on the table. Rukia and Ichigo seemed weary of getting near the stuff I had just constructed before their eyes. "Don't worry it's a molecular replica from what I took the molecular scans of. It doesn't taste any different and it's even warm from the atomic reconstruction. In short it doesn't have any detrimental effects other than the ones that would exist with the normally produced ones. And the taste remains unchanged." They seemed to be calmed a bit by what I said but were still hesitant when drinking the liquids. We talked a bit about situations in our lives and what kind of things we've seen in karakura. The next day, everyone was gathered in front of a set of doors that had light peering out of it. _Welp, here it _goes. After a few more people showed up Rukia, Ichigo, and I, headed through the doors into the precipice world. _Huh, looks pretty damp._ We rushed all the way to the exit and came out at a hillside near a soccer field. "Well I'll see you two some other time I guess." I waved goodbye and then teleported back to my house. I noticed that there was caution tape covering my door. _Hmm. Well I'll just sort this out tomorrow_. Then I rearranged a couple of the unused rooms in my house to prepare for any future experiments in them. I heard an alert coming from my q-computer. "Aww crap! I forgot that the aether transmitter was demolished with the laboratory. Time for a new project." So I cracked my knuckles and went up into the attic to construct an aether transmitter for the rest of the day. Once I was nearly finished, an innovative idea came to mind. _Since these circumstances are extraneous enough, I might not get caught or get in trouble for testing free energy with these people._ So ignoring what time it was, I headed out for my car soon realizing that it was left at the laboratory. "Aww, damn it!" So instead of driving I decide to teleport over to karakura high… "Wait a second! I don't even know where Ichigo's house is." Just then I realized that in my sleep deprived haste, I completely neglected to finish the transmitter. I looked down at the ground and saw that I should go home before my reserves are completely dried out. But as I was about to do that my shield became inactive and my q-computer started hibernation so its information would stay in tact. The repercussions of this were that I got knocked unconscious by falling down onto the concrete only a few kilometers away from karakura high.

**Normal POV:**

The next day after school ended, Ichigo, uryu, Orihime, and Rukia were walking to the park when they happened upon Karino. He was strewn along the side of a building and had his leg underneath of him in a seemingly uncomfortable position. Once Ichigo recognizes him he drew the others attention to him. "Hey, that's Karino!" "Is he okay?" Orihime asked. "He may not even be alive." Uryu stated. Then Kon poked out of Ichigo's backpack and went over near his head. Rukia walked up and kicked karino, waited a few seconds and then kicked a lot harder. Karino woke abruptly by the second kick. "Ah! What the…" Karino sat up, and picked up his limp leg. "Oh, holy shit! I think it's broken." "Let me help!" Orihime says, proceeding to use her healing abilities. Seeing this, Karino's eyes widen "Hmm..." "All better now." Orihime said. "Hey can you do that again?" Karino asked. "But you're not hurt…" "But you would do that again if I was hurt right?" Karino interrupted. "Well…" before Orihime could continue, Karino brought out his AAP and shot a round of antimatter on the same leg. Leaving a chunk of flesh missing. "Do it again please." Karino asked. But everyone's reaction of horror left only sounds of discontent. Karino chuckled "Oh… I guess that was pretty drastic huh?" then Rukia slapped karino on the back of the head "IDIOT!" she said. "What are you thinking?!" Orihime came up again to heal the wound. "Oh hold up a second…" Karino said while bringing out his q-computer. "But… doesn't it hurt?" Orihime asked. "Well… I've had worse, but it would be stupid of me not to analyze your healing methods. The possible benefits of the reproduction of that type of complicated process are potentially limitless for any living creature." Orihime then healed the wound with a concerned look on her face. After she finished karino got up and flexed his leg while the crew backed away a bit. Karino looked up at them, changing his expression from relief to guilt. "Uh… sorry for getting extreme like that. but with as complicated a procedure as healing is, I've only managed to emulate simple healing procedures like stitching, or…well that's mainly it actually. But with this info, I think I may be able to unravel techniques for vastly more complicated procedures. I really think this will be able to help a lot of people. Though, I do apologize for the shock I caused for you. I never meant to freak you guys out." After that, they all continued to the park and karino came along.

**Karino's POV:**

It was starting to get dark when I realized that I hadn't even finished the transmitter yet. At this time we were all playing still talking to each other. I went next to Ichigo to talk to him "Hey, I have to go. I just realized that I still haven't finished the new aether transmitter. But I would like to know where you live because I might be able to equip your house with free power." After elaborating what I said, Ichigo willingly gave me quick directions to his house. I then thanked him and headed off for my house. _I need to remember to sleep next time… even though I've made a lot of progress today_. Once I reached my house I saw an unfamiliar black Mercedes in the driveway. _Hm, I probably should peer inside_. I reached the kitchen window and crouched to peer in at the bottom. I saw that there were two men inside walking around looking through absolutely everything. _Maybe my absence led to more serious repercussions than I had thought_. Instead of going inside I went in the direction of Ichigo's house. _Maybe it's for the best. At least now I don't have to worry anymore about being threatened into not releasing my inventions to the public. Though I should probably lay low for a couple of months… or years_. On the way to Ichigo's, I contemplated various methods of constructing an underground base. I decided that I would ask for the permission of his father to build one underneath of their house if Ichigo wasn't home. When I reached Ichigo's house it was almost completely dark outside. I walked up and knocked on the door, it then swung open "HELLLOO ICHIGOOO!" Ichigo's dad flew out and kicked me square in the face, and I landed on my back a little bit away from the door. "Oops! Sorry, I thought you were my idiot son. I can take care of that for you inside." At first I didn't realize what he meant, but then I felt the blood running down my lip. "Oh, thanks." I said as I got up. _What a peculiar greeting. I sympathize for Ichigo having to deal with this_. He brought me inside and told me to sit for a second so I sat in a chair in the dining room. He came back with a cloth rapped around a few ice cubes to put on my nose and then sat in a chair next to me. "My name's Isshin Kurosaki, what's yours?" he asked. "Oh, my name's Karino Tomora." I responded. "So, what are you here for?" I turned to him and got to the point "listen, I have a proposition to supply you with free electricity if you let me take residence underneath your house inside a lab that I will be able to construct within ten to fifteen minuets. This will in no way be detrimental to you and is completely legal." _Wait… I guess if caught, whatever person who didn't want this open to the public when I was working at the lab would take action. But I am considered to be dead so I should be safe on that_. "Are you even sure you can do all that?" Isshin asked "well… approximately 99.67 percent sure. Just so you know, here's a demonstration…" I took out a marble sized chunk of material and proceeded to float it half-way between me and Isshin. Then I separated it into a plethora of sand sized particulates, which I then reassembled to take the shape of a strand of DNA. Isshin was amazed by this and eagerly agreed to allow me to take residence. "oh and do you have and attic where I can place the aether transmitter?" he led me up to a cramped attic "perfect!" so I went outside and gathered dirt from up against the back-side of the house to fill my pockets. Then I went back up to the attic to reconstruct the dirt. "Wait…" Isshin said. "Couldn't you do the same thing that you did with the marble to the dirt?" "Well, yes. But I want to conserve my aether reserves since my other transmitter was destroyed and my q-computer uses more aetherical discharge for reconstruction and levitation than most any other function." So I proceeded to repeat going outside and coming back in several times before I was finished with construction. I then initiated the pulsing sequence for the transmitter and, using the aether transmitted by it, constructed a q-computer of high purity to run stabilization and protection routines for the transmitter. I then went downstairs and found Isshin. "I'm almost finished; I just need to know where your power comes through from outside." He led me to the power box outside and I opened it. _I should probably do this since the key entities concerned about my free energy would've been electrical companies_. "…I just need a few minuets to wire this correctly so that the excess amperage you receive will be sent onto the power-grid so the electrical company pays you for the kilowatt-hours sent back through the grid." "Is that even legal?" Isshin asked. "Yup. It's the same deal if you have solar panels and they're producing more electricity than you're using at the time. But with this it will always have some excess amperage since its just one house, so I have to wire this so that the feed coming in to it isn't so much that it damages the immediate electrical grid too easily." He didn't seem to completely understand, but that isn't all that unusual, so I just continued working. Once I wired the box properly I took some more dirt to construct a direct receiver. I then made a secret compartment behind the box to place the receiver, and I connected it to the houses main circuit. Once I was done Isshin seemed to be really grateful. I explained that all I really needed was the space underground but after he offered me several different things… like his son *shudders*… in compensation for what I'd done, I conceded to occasionally eat dinners with them. Though, I explained that I had far too much to do for me to come that night. So we said our goodbyes, and I proceeded to where I had been collecting the dirt from the back of the house. I constructed an underground fortification in the shape of a pyramid made up of about twenty-five large rooms and no entrance to prevent trespassers. The top room I made specifically a monitoring station for various things (which now include hollows), and afterwards I headed to sleep for the night. I woke up at about noon and decided to analyze what data I'd gathered from Orihime's healing ability. I pulled up the data and immediately got exited. "Amazing! Hmm, I wonder if…" I shot a round of antimatter at the desk next to me and quickly wrote a protocol to mimic Orihime's ability. I then used it on the gaping hole in the desk, and before my eye's it began to reform. _Wow. I knew the powers of quantum reversal would be drastic, but this is exemplary…_ just then I got an alert from my q-computer about high decibel readings in the Kurosaki residence. I brought up the visual data and saw that it was just Ichigo quarrelling with the talking stuffed lion. "Heh, interesting people." *sighs* through all that I accomplished I'd struck a point of boredom. I sat for a moment contemplating what I'd done and what happened through the week. "Oh!" I looked down at where my zanpakuto was and noticed that even though I still felt as if it were at my side, I couldn't see it. _Interesting_. I took my q-computer and analyzed the area around my waist. _It seems as though it only resides aetherically, I wonder how I can fix that_. So I spent the next few hours scanning and calculating just to find out that I couldn't physically manifest it. So I decided to invent a chamber that would allow me to be transferred to an aetherical state. I was almost done by ten-o-clock so I went to sleep and woke up in the morning to finish it. When I got up I started some trials with the facsimile of Orihime's ability. I procured a number of minimal injuries to verify that it would work. I then proceeded to finish the chamber for the rest of the day. It was night by the time I had managed to complete it and run some diagnostics when a powerful feeling came over me and an alert sounded from my q-computer for a massively powerful arranchar nearby. "Ugh! Why now." So I stopped and flashed outside to scan for Ichigo and Rukia. I found that they were near the outskirts of karakura town. I also found that five of the soul reapers from the seriate were also fighting Arrancars around karakura. So I quickly headed over to Ichigo's location to see if I could help. When I was close to Ichigo's fight, I happened across Rukia and her gigai. Rukia was strewn across the ground with severe wounds, and her gigai was inhabited by a soul candy and looking after Rukia. I decided to stop for a second and heal her wounds before I went closer to Ichigo's battle.

**A/N: **I'd appreciate it if every reader reviews this story so I can get a clear picture as to the opinion of the public audience. Also I need the most reviews possible to have any hope of decent accuracy, thanks.

Also I suppose that the part of this chapter where Isshin offers Ichigo to Karino could use some clarification. First, it would probably best help to know that I wasn't attempting to portray that Isshin was _seriously_ offering Ichigo. The offering was more of a joke than anything else since it was evident to Isshin that Karino wasn't willing to accept any extra form of payment.

thx

6


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Intrepid Experience

**A/N:** I dislike how the zanpakuto arc was implemented, so I'm planning on starting it after the first battle between Ichigo and Grimmjow is finished. Also, any suggestions that can be offered would be helpful and appreciated, Thanks.

**Karino's POV:**

As I approach Rukia her gigai turned to me with a sharp look. "Don't worry; I'm just here to heal her." When I said this, the gigai seemed to be okay with it and thus allowed me to get to Rukia. I got next to her and started the process from my q-computer. _Damn, still slower than Orihime's technique. I guess I'll just monitor Ichigo's fight while I wait_. So I bring up a skyward display of Ichigo's battle while Rukia finished healing. "What's that?!" Rukia's gigai asked in a girly voice. "Oh, this is a view of Ichigo's fight with the Arrancar… do you want to watch too?" I asked. The gigai seemed eager to do so, so I widened the display and sat back against a nearby fence to watch what unfolded.

**Normal POV:**

Ichigo comes at Grimmjow, swinging downward with his sword. Grimmjow blocks the advance and kicks Ichigo, sending him back a couple of yards in the air. Grimmjow flashes to Ichigo going to punch him when Ichigo flashes behind Grimmjow before the attack connects. Ichigo is about to swing downward with his sword onto Grimmjow, when Grimmjow flashes to the street below. Ichigo darts down to Grimmjow and Grimmjow flashes a short distance away just before Ichigo reaches the ground. A cloud of dust is kicked up by Ichigo's impact. Ichigo heads towards Grimmjow through the smoke and swings his sword at him. Grimmjow catches the sword mid-swing, and throws Ichigo forward by his sword. Ichigo slides back a few yards through the street, causing pieces of street to be thrown up along the way. Ichigo finally jumps up and Grimmjow flashes right in front of him. Grimmjow is going to punch Ichigo when Ichigo flashes a few inches below Grimmjow fist, and Ichigo then swings his sword at Grimmjow. Grimmjow catches Ichigo's sword mid-swing again "what is this guy?" Ichigo states and Grimmjow proceeds to kick downward onto Ichigo's chest. In the middle of the kick, Ichigo coughs out a bit of blood and spit. Ichigo fly's down to the street below, hitting a traffic light before smashing into the road. Grimmjow moves back and forth like a boxer would a few times before flying down to Ichigo.

**Karino's POV:**

As Grimmjow fly's towards Ichigo, Ichigo props himself up to stand in the crater he's in, in preparation for Grimmjow attack. Halfway before Grimmjow reaches Ichigo a cone shaped mist ring forms briefly around the path that Grimmjow's following. Shortly afterwards an extremely loud echoing boom sounds around Karino and the gigai shortly after it sounds from the display. "HOLY SHIT! He actually broke the sound barrier!… I'm surprised that he still has his skin on." Karino chuckles at his comment and proceeds to check on Rukia's status. She seems to be completely healed at this point and absorbed in the fight as well, so I sneak away to Ichigo and leave the display running for Rukia and her soul candy to watch. _I should probably see what I can do to analyze these two…covertly_. So I activate a function to make myself invisible, and hurriedly dash onward.

**Normal POV:**

Ichigo blocks Grimmjow's punch, but is then launched backwards. Ichigo fly's across the pavement, crashing into the surface several times before being stopped by smashing into a guardrail. Ichigo is hunched over, seeming exhausted, with his arms across the rail. Grimmjow slowly walks to Ichigo, while Ichigo struggles trying to stand up. Grimmjow reaches to Ichigo, and picks him up by the collar of his shihaksho. Grimmjow then proceeds to land a barrage of punches on Ichigo while he's suspended in the air.

**Karino's POV:**

I finally reach the tattered street and see that Ichigo is being punched nonstop. _Woah! The shear force of the punches he's delivering is keeping Ichigo suspended above the ground, amazing… I… mean… shocking. Anyway time to start analyzing_. So I begin recording information regarding every status that I can about the two fighters. just then Grimmjow lands an exceptionally hard punch upwards and Ichigo seems to be floating for a second. Then Grimmjow uppercuts him, sending Ichigo flying several yards upward. Grimmjow flashes above Ichigo and lands a kick that sends Ichigo flying back down to an already made crater. Then Grimmjow pauses to shortly look over to the side of him that I'm on. _He couldn't have noticed me, could he have? _Then I realize that there seems to be a small glob of liquid heading downwards but I'm too late to doge it. And since I was gaping up at Grimmjow, the small glob somehow lands directly in my mouth. "GACHH! Ah! I think I swallowed it! Blech! Blech! Blech! Blech! Bleeeech!" I sick a hand into my mouth to regurgitate what came into it, I end up making more noise vomiting than I did yelling in disgust. I finished quickly and immediately noticed that Grimmjow, was at that point, staring directly at me. _Damn it… covers blown_._ I'm curious as to what that seemed like to him…_ I started to laugh and quickly turn to my q-computer to stop the video feed going to Rukia so that I can conserve power. But as I was going to turn a way from the display from the q-computer I noticed something extraordinary, and apparently Grimmjow had as well because he was staring at where Ichigo was. Ichigo jumps toward Grimmjow a few meters and fires a black wave of energy at Grimmjow, immediately firing another. _Epic!_ But as the smoke clears, Ichigo and I both see that Grimmjow is in a blocking position with burn scars across his arms and chest. He puts down his arms and flashes behind Ichigo. Time seems to slow for a second as I witness the surprised look on Ichigo's face and the slow-motion drop-kick that Grimmjow uses on Ichigo. Ichigo is flung onto the same crater below. "Hah! That was pretty impressive kid, but you're going to have to do a lot better than that to defeat me _Soul Reaper_!" I just stood there waiting for the smoke around Ichigo to clear. I briefly glanced at the readings on Ichigo and notice some extreme peculiarities, aside from the fact that his aetherical density is illogically high. Once the smoke cleared I saw that Ichigo was standing upright and had his head facing down enough for me not to be able to see his face. He stood there for a second before making a slow garbled sigh. Then the sigh grew to a shriek as he lifted his head to Grimmjow, revealing half of a white mask on his face that has interesting red markings across it. Grimmjow seemed to be startled briefly as Ichigo screamed again and headed directly for him. Ichigo slashed repeatedly at Grimmjow and he seemed to have a surprisingly difficult time blocking Ichigo's attacks. They both began to react to each other so viciously and quickly that I had a very difficult time keeping track of them. Within several minuets of the battles progression a garganta opened up to reveal a dark skinned man with a visor over his eyes and a white suit. He flashed to Grimmjow and held him by the neck with his right arm, then he said "Aizen-sama requests your presence…" before quickly flashing back through the garganta. Ichigo screamed and darted to the garganta only making it just as the thing closes. Then he just stands there for a second so I take the opportunity to surround him with the best shield protocol that I had. I temporarily altered it so it wouldn't filter the carbon dioxide and after about six minuets of screeching and bashing against the barrier he eventually passed out. As soon as he did I got rid of the shield and drifted us to the ground. By the time we reached the ground his white mask had completely broke apart and disappeared. _Interesting, this definitely will require some investigation_. So I have Ichigo float a few feet behind me on the way to the other soul reapers. When I got their, everyone but Ikkaku and Yumichika were talking about the battles they had. When I described what happened to Ichigo, I left out the part about his hollowfication. After I finished, Orihime turned her head to Ichigo and cocked her head a bit "H-hey! Why is Ichigo floating like that?", "Oh, well it's a lot less detrimental to his physical condition if I don't have any contact with him whatsoever." I responded. "I can heal him if you want," she commented. "Actually I'm interested in testing the healing process that I've managed to duplicate from your abilities. This presents a perfect opportunity for me to…" I stopped myself for a second, "…if you don't mind that is." "Oh! Not at all." she replied. So I headed back to my base and started preparations by laying Ichigo across an operating table, standing there in contemplation for a second before starting. "Time to find out what the hell just happened to you, my friend.". I first took out my q-computer and set it on the table in-between us. Then I pulled up a display from the q-computer and started healing Ichigo. _Hmm. Not as rapid as it could be, but I guess it still needs a little tweaking anyway._ Once Ichigo was healed after a few minuets, I started to initialize scans for the quantity and consistency of his aether. After a few minuets of sifting through and refining the healing protocol I heard a chime that let me know that the scanning was done. _Well now, let's see what we…_ my face flew closer to the display as my eyes widened "Holy shit! It's like he's got a whole fucking universe inside of him!" I immediately flipped through the vast arrays of his data. "Man! It's even growing as I study him. I wonder what else there is here." I started a new scan for patterns and fluctuations. As it scanned I continued to review the data I had on him already. "Huh, seems that he's split in several areas. I wonder if that's related to…" the chime sounded again, letting me know it had finished. I switched to the new data and started to flip through it, occasionally making sounds of amazement. _Wow! Several unique planes that intersect inside of him, and that's just the beginning of it. I wonder what correlations there are here…_ I sifted through a bit more data and then collated it into a single deployment. Once I finished that I studied it for a second. _it seems as if there is a singularity through which I might be able to observe him from the inside._ I prepared a few connections and sat back in my chair and sighed while I waited for the connections to engage. "…err, maybe I should" just then the connections were made and I was sent strait into the temporary focal point of Ichigo's soul. I open my eyes and slowly realized where I was "large, towering, buildings. Huh, I never would've guessed." I dart my head around "wait! Am I really standing on the side of a freaking building! …uh… agh! Holy shit, my head hurts like hell! Damn it, Serves me right for not fucking taking the extra few minuets to refine my decision… Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" I said as I wacked my head repeatedly. Then I noticed that my zanpakuto was at my side. _Hey! It's good to see you again._ I took my kunai in my hand and examined it. Then I put it back in its holster and looked around a bit more. I noticed that Ichigo was several meters away from me, lying on the side of the building unconscious. I walked over to him and kneeled down to take a closer look at him. _Huh, he doesn't seem to need to breathe in here._ I poked him in the ribs to see if I could elicit a reaction. But as I was doing that I noticed footsteps coming my way, so I looked in the direction that they were coming from. _Is that an albino version of Ichigo!? _"Wh-who are you?" I asked. "Stay the fuck away from him!" is the only response I received before he came at me so fast that I could barely see him move before I put my kunai up which just barely prevented him from slashing through my body. Though as he was passing me he swung his sword back at me and through my chest. I coughed blood as my q-computer started to pull me back out of Ichigo. As I was fading out I glanced over and noticed that the real Ichigo was still laying some distance away from me. _So… confusing_. I jerked out from my chair, breathing heavily with my hand clasped against my chest. Once my breathing slowed I took the chance to look over to Ichigo lying on the table through the display in front of my face. _What a special kid. I feel sad that he has to fight all the time._ Ichigo began to rustle on the table. _Oh boy._ I quickly turned to the display of the q-computer and got to flash Ichigo into his room before he awoke. _Wait! Isn't he in soul form? Heh, I hope that isn't too conspicuous._ I relaxed back in the chair for a second and put my hand over the spot where the sword came through. _More rash decisions, just like when I screwed up with testing on antimatter… with similar repercussions too._ I stuck out my right hand and then opened and clenched it once. "I feel tired…" Then I took my q-computer and stuck it back into my shirt pocket. I went to my room and sat on my bed for a second while rubbing my forehead.

**Normal POV:**

Shiro thrusts his sword through Karino's back. Karino fades out and Shiro holds his sword along his shoulder as he faces Ichigo. "Idiot King." Shiro states crudely.

**Ichigo's POV:**

"Ichigooo! Ichigoooo!" Yuzu was calling me for dinner so I woke up. As I woke images of the battle with Grimmjow came flooding through my view. _I can't believe I lost to Grimmjow_. Yuzu was coming to the door when I realized I wasn't in my body. Huh_, I must've blacked out._ I went over and came back into my body, quickly heading to the door. "I'm coming!" I yell down the hallway. I make my way to the table and sit down. "It's curry; I hope you and your friend like it." Yuzu said as she came to the table with the curry. "What friend?" I asked. "You know, the one that dad is calling right now.

**Karino's POV:**

As I get ready to sleep my q-computer makes the alarm sound for when someone above is calling for me. _Oh crap, I'm way too fucking tired_. I flashed up behind Isshin who was stomping on the grass and calling my name. I taped him on the shoulder and he quickly turned around towards me. "Hey, how'd you sneak up on me like that?" he asked. "Uh, what did you want me for exactly?" I quibbled. "For dinner, of course." Isshin responded. "Oh… okay." I walked with Isshin to the table and saw that Ichigo was staring at me with suspicion in his eyes. "h-hey Ichigo." I said. After sitting at the table, I noticed that we were having curry. Once I could smell it my stomach unexpectedly made low grumbling noises. "Heh, I guess I haven't eaten in a while." _Now that I think about it, it's probably been about three days._ Isshin makes his way to his seat, and everyone begins eating. As I eat I get my q-computer to copy the curry since it's so delicious. I finish my curry within two minuets and I sit there to wait until everyone else finishes. First, Karin and Isshin finished, and then Yuzu and Ichigo finish and leave the table. _Finally!_ I take several cubes of material out of my lab coat and use them to make a fresh bowl of curry. I continued to scarf-down bowls of curry unrestrained for about six minuets before, in the middle of going through a bowl, I noticed that Yuzu and Karin were peeping at me through a doorway off to the side. I stopped at that instant and calmly made the rest of the curry I made back into material cubes and walked into the bathroom. Once I noticed that they were at the door I teleported to the outside of the house so I could see what they were doing. _Just spying on me huh?_ I decide to walk around to the back of the house and go back to my lab and I see Ichigo back there looking at the sky. I walked up to him and asked him how he was doing. "I'm alright." He responded. "Hey, um, I'd like to talk to you about what happened recently." As I said this, Ichigo turned to me with a serious look on his face. "What is it?" he asked. "Well I saw you… hollowfy?... at least, that's what it seemed like. And you started to fend off Grimmjow when someone showed up from a garganta to collect him. After he left I rendered you unconscious and you seemed to return to normal, as well as most of your more serious injuries being healed." I said. "Were you the one who brought me home?" he asked. "Well yes, and no. you see, I actually brought you back to my lab and healed you. But I kind of got a little too curious and started to scan you to see what I could find out." "What!? Just what did…" I interrupted before he could finish "hold on a sec! It's not like I did anything really significant. I just scanned your aether composition… a.k.a. spirit energy… to see what was going on." _I'd better not tell him that I went into his inner world yet._ He got a concerned look on his face after I said this. "What did you find out?" he asked. I stood there in contemplation for a second. _How should I describe this?... hm… ah, I know!_ "Well it turns out that you have massive amounts of spirit energy. It even seems large enough to be capable of containing an entire planet, maybe smaller than earth when you're at your weakest that I've seen. Though this means that it is extremely compressed, which explains why you aren't fully capable of accessing it yet." I stood there while I let Ichigo take this in. " also… and this is still a theory in the works… but there seems to be a subconscious entity, likely the same one that took over during your fight with Grimmjow, that is responsible for the maintenance and regulation of the greater portions of your spirit energy. This would explain how you're able to sustain such massive concentrations of spirit energy with little effort on your part. But as for now, that is all I can definitively ascertain from the data that I've gotten from you so far." As I let him further digest what I said he eventually looks back at me again. "So… how did I end up in my room on the floor?" he asked "Oh!" *I chuckle* "as you started to wake up I teleported you back into your room. But I completely forgot that you weren't in your physical body yet… sorry about that." "That's okay." He responded. I yawn and stretch a second. "Well, I'm going to head off to bed. Good night!" "…good night." Ichigo responded. I teleport back into my lab and I decide to finally finish the chamber. I reach the chamber and think for a moment. _Hm. Just so that I don't have a repeat of the incident with Ichigo I think that I'll do a few more calculations._ I paced around the hatch to the spiritualization chamber before I suddenly stopped in exclamation. "Ah!" I decide to make a few adjustments in order to attach my q-computer to the top of the chamber. _There that should be able to prevent anything really bad from continuing uninterrupted._ So I open the hatch and step inside. "Here goes nothing!" I press the red initialization button next to me and wait as the quarts charges up. As I wait I see a blue light of increasing intensity circle me faster and faster. Eventually the light looks like an immensely bright ring around me. I sway back and forth as I become nauseous and disoriented. Everything fades into a blackness that seems to go on forever. "… Hello?" I call out in the hopes of reaching my zanpakuto. I think that I hear rustling nearby and I turn to the direction that I heard it from but there was still only black around me. "Hello!?" I yell again, hoping to elicit a response. I hear nothing after that so I walk a little ways until I reach what seems to be a faintly glowing surface. I reach my hand out to it to feel it and my hand goes strait through it. Disturbing it like a body of water. I feel a slight breeze on the other side so I go completely through to investigate. Upon entering I'm blinded by the light coming from above, and I just stand for a few seconds to let my eyes adjust. Once I can see clearly I notice a small slightly hilled field that ends in what seem to be four white walls that surround me. I immediately notice the rain and how it seems, odd. The rain drops are falling at an incredibly slow pace and I even hold my hand under a droplet as it falls to by feet without touching it at all. The entire field is lighted by a dim sphere directly in the middle of what seems to be an all white sky. I turn behind me and touch the wall I just came through. This time it feels like the surface of a pillow except completely rigid. _Huh._ I turn back to the small field and walk about 11 meters before I reach the opposite wall. _Interesting inner world I have. But sadly not nearly as cool as Ichigo's._ I hear a scurrying sound and I look around again. Till after a few seconds I notice a small light at a corner of the field. I walk to it and I notice that it seems to be a fuse of some kind. "What the…" I snap back around to what seems to be a small brown weasel snickering. "EXPLOSION!" it exclaims. And I notice that the fuse is already underneath the ground. Before I can react I am blasted upward by an explosion that went off a few feet away from me near the center of the field. I hit the wall behind me and I slide abruptly to the ground before getting pelted with clods of dirt. I look up and notice that the rain is absent in a spherical pattern above me as it falls slowly to the ground. "This is… weird." I brush off the small clods of dirt as I look around again and notice that the small craters around me are having dirt reformed in them as the rain hits them. By the time I walked around several of the craters they got halfway filled with dirt again. Once I reach near one of the walls I notice that it seems to be more concave than I first noticed. Then I hear a sound of stretching and I look back to the filled craters having patches of grass rapidly form on them. Once I look back at the wall it seems to be a little bit farther from me now and perfectly flat again. _…hm, seems to be growing._ I look around once more and I notice that the whole place looks the same as when I came in. "Hey weasel! Where are you?" I yell out. I'm responded by sounds of frustration. "Aw, come on! I'm not a fucking weasel!" the response seems to come from all around me. I turn and look around to see if I can find him. "Well, where are you?" I repeated. "Right here." This time his voice is coming from right behind me. When I look at where I heard him I see the small brown ferret from earlier. I stand for a second stuck in thought. "A-are you…" "No duh! Who do you think I am _genius_." He interrupts. "Why did you bring me here?" I asked. "Cause what you're doing fucking hurts!" Konryo retorts. "Wow, I didn't think…" "You're damn right you didn't think! *sighs* you honestly will never know how painful it is in being stretched across different spiritual plains." Konryo interrupted. "… sorry. I guess I don't really _have_ to use you." I said guiltily. "Now now, you won't have to do that. Just be a little patient until we're in a realm with a higher ambient aetherical density, okay?" I stand there pondering what Konryo just said. "Wait!" I exclaim excitedly. "What if I just got my spirit to be temporarily separate of my body?" I see Konryo's whiskers twitch as he thinks about it. _Dang, he's really cute when he's thinking_. "What the fuck!" he yelled. "You know that I can hear everything that you think out loud in here! And by the way, I hate being a ferret! Why couldn't you have just been less fucking antsy and curious about everything!?" I could barley stifle a laugh as Konryo was chastising me. "You have to admit though, you do look somewhat _adorable_." I said in a false adoring tone. Konryo growls and runs over to me as I'm laughing and bites my leg. "Ow!" I say as he lets go and lands a few feet away. *scoffs* "well I guess I'm okay with you doing that as long as it doesn't do anything to me." When Konryo says this he is facing away from me. "I guess I'm going to go then…" I say as Konryo and the field around me start to fade around me. "…you don't really have a choice." He responds. I don't understand what he means until I am jolted awake by the alarm sounding in the chamber I was in. I get to my feet and notice a splitting headache. "Aagh!" _I've got to take a vacation._ I open the doors to the chamber and see smoke coming out from the sides of it. _Hmm. I must have melted through the electrolytic converters with the resistance that my body put on it._ *sighs* _well, I'm way too tired to fix it now. I'll just do some planning for tomorrow and go to bed._ I get the q-computer from the chamber and head to my desk to start designing.

**Normal POV:**

Rukia slams open the door to Ichigo's room with a serious look on her face. Ichigo looks over to her, wondering what's wrong. "Ichigo! There's a problem in the soul society, we have to go now!" Rukia says hurriedly. "Fine, let's go!" Ichigo quickly grabs kon from the stuffed animal and swallows him. Ichigo is ejected from his body as kon (in Ichigo's body) lands on the bed. "Take care of my body while were gone… and don't do anything perverted with it while we're away." Scolds Ichigo. Kon agrees and after Rukia swallows a chappy, she and Ichigo head out through the window of Ichigo's room. They then open a doorway to the soul society and rush in.

**Karino's POV:**

I find myself slouched over on my desk on top of my completed sketches as I'm woken up by the sound of my q-computer telling me that I've been asleep for eight hours. I yawn and stretch in my chair for a minute. _Oh, it's nine already?_ Then I head over to the chamber and finish modifying it so it can successfully delineate my spirit energy. Then I go near the circle of Latin incantations on the floor in front of the chamber to complete inscribing them so that I can use them to come back here from any distance or realm I may be at. _Man, I don't know who made this language but whoever did must've known a lot more than I do._ Once I finish I hear the sound of my stomach complaining. "Ah, I guess I should eat." I teleport out of my lab and near the front door of Ichigo's house. I knock on the door and after it opens I see Isshin standing there. "Hey, uh, do you mind if I help with making breakfast" I ask. Isshin ushers me in quickly and takes me to the kitchen. I see that Rukia is putting frozen waffles into a toaster. I walk over quickly and stop her before she starts the toaster. "Hey! Wait a second, I know how to make better waffles than these freeze dried disappointments." Rukia cheerfully steps aside to let me work. _Hm, she seems to be chappy. I wonder if she and Ichigo went somewhere…_ again I hear my stomach growling at me. _Well, I could always find out after breakfast._ I take the water from the sink faucet and make a new multi-spaced waffle iron. Then after I plug it in I take more water and make the ingredients for batter. Then I use their blender to mix the ingredients and pour them into the waffle iron. After about sixteen minutes I take twenty-five waffles on a plate and put them in the middle of the table that everyone's waiting at. Then I pick up the maple syrup and swish it around for a bit as I convert the diluted contents in it into pure maple syrup. As I put it down Karin asks me why I was swirling it. _I have no idea if Isshin wants them knowing. Hmm._ I pause for a moment before taking my seat as I think of an excuse. "Uh… swirling it in a special way makes the sugars more homogeneous in the mixture." That explanation seems to work, or at least they seem to forget about it altogether, as everyone is thoroughly enjoying the homemade waffles and real maple syrup. I manage to finish first, so I head to the kitchen and remove all the leftover matter from the surface of all the things I used and make it into a small cube of marble. Then, as I head out the door I thank them for having me over and they are barely able to respond as they continue through the plate of waffles I left for them. I take their collective enjoyment as a 'thank you' and I walk out. Once I teleport back into my lab I sit in my desk chair and turn to stair at the circle and chamber near the side of the room. _…huh. Now that I think about it, I didn't really need to go up there to make that stuff._ Then a familiar voice sounds in my head. _'Maybe you're just tired of being alone. I mean think about it! You recently lost you co-worker, and years before that your wife. Clearly you're starved for company.'_ In an effort to quibble I think about something else. _Hey! I didn't know I could communicate to you like this. Is this a recent development? _

'_No duh Sherlock! Your little experiment kind of left us scarred.' So I'm stuck with you now? '… Deal with it.'_ I turn back to my desk and take out my q-computer. _I wonder if Ichigo and Rukia went to the soul society._ Upon reading quantum scans of the area around Ichigo's house I find that a rift to the soul society was made at about seven in the morning. _Well, it does seem to be a convenient excuse for trying out my chamber._ After I make an 80% quartz sphere I place the pure one in the slot at the top of the entrance to the chamber. A low humming can be heard as the aether currents are collected and prepared. _'So that breakfast just made you more desperate for attention, huh?' …shut up._ The door to the chamber opens after it warms up and I step inside. Once the door closes I turn off my shield and watch as glowing droplets of un-stabilized aether flies from the bottom plate to the top plate. _So awesome! It kind of looks like brightly colored reversed rain._ As the frequency of the droplets increases everything around me seems to be becoming more and more distorted until I can only see white. Then, after a few seconds I notice that my vision seems to be slowly clearing up. The first thing that comes into my view is the chamber in front of me. After a few minutes of waiting and squinting at everything, I'm finally able to see clearly again. I look down and see that I'm in the circle of Latin runes. _Yes! Finally an experiment this week that didn't make significant problems for me. 'Easy… for you to say… jerk.' Huh? You sound kind of funny Konryo. 'Hell yeah! Whatever you did made me extremely nauseous.'_ *Karino chuckles* _hey, just don't throw up in my head okay?_ *Karino continues laughing* _'fuck you! I told you not to do anything to me damn it!' well I assume that you aren't disfigured or anything right? '…' right then! So there's no significant damage._ I look down to my side and I see Konryo in his sealed state. _In all seriousness, I am sorry._ *Konryo grumbles acceptance of the apology* I look down at Konryo for a second and then I pick him up to inspect him. Once I held him at eye level I saw that he had lines strewn across the guard. I drew the sword out slightly and I could see that the hilt had been changed from the original circle I made to a triangular shape. The blade had carved in it the number three, the letter C, the Roman numeral for three, and the end of the blade had three sharp points to it. _Soo… what's with the obsession on three? 'What! I can't like a particular number more than the others?!' …that's not it, it's just… oh! When we were in my inner world, weren't there more than three explosions? 'Nine actually.' Huh… 'What!?' nothing I just don't know… 'It's because it's a multiple of three! Sheesh, I though you'd be able to understand that.' …that's not it. I'm just not sure where that came from. 'Huh?' well the way I see it, your characteristics are manifestations derived from my characteristics. So logically there should be something about me that correlates to that aspect of you. 'Maybe it's because you always want to where that outfit of yours?' nah, that couldn't be it… maybe?... Nah._ "Oh! Wait a second…" I head over to the reflective metal on the chamber and I look at my attire. "Aw man! I'm wearing one of those black kimonos now." I tug and inspect the kimono now draped around me. _Oh! I have an idea! '…better not fuck me up _again' Konryo warns. _Don't worry… at least; I think it won't do anything bad._ Then I head over to the desk and pick up the q-computer I made before I went into the chamber. Then I alter the representation of the kimono to look like my normal clothing. "There!" _feeling alright? 'So far'_ Konryo says, unsure about it. _Well it wasn't a complex modification… at least by my standards… so there shouldn't be any adverse side effects._ I say reassuringly _'there damn well better not be.' I also did something to try and stop the nausea. Do you feel better? '…yeah, a lot better. Thanks.' No problem, now let's go._ I put the q-computer in my pocket and then walk over to the chamber. As I look into the small window on the door I see my body being suspended in the middle of the aether flowing from below. _Kind of looks odd_. I teleport out of my lab and use the remnants of the spatial coordinates Rukia and Ichigo used to go through to the same location that they went to. As I walk towards the swirling multicolored vortex in front of me I think about the one they used. *Karino chuckles* "mine looks better." I say proudly. I reach what seems to be a small allocation of trashed buildings and up-heaved soil. "Well, this is… unexpected." I say as I walk around surveying the damage. _One battle after another, huh? 'Clearly' …the commentary is not needed._ *Konryo laughs* I can't help but laugh with him at what was said, at first. Then I started laughing again in the thought of what it must look like from and outside perspective watching me laugh right in front of the ruins, of what used to be buildings, caused by a major battle. _'That's a little much isn't it?' I just think that watching me laugh like that in this environment would be funny to… er… uh… huh; I guess they'd actually be furious. 'Now doesn't that make more sense?'_ I ignore Konryo's sarcasm as I continue to analyze the area to see what transpired. I find that multiple battles have taken place while migrating to different areas. _Before I head out I should probably be prepared._ I walk back over to some rubble and use it to construct a pure quartz sphere. Then I instill the programs I have onto it and put it in my inside pocket. I place the tainted quartz sphere in one of the pockets to my side. "That may come in handy later." As I put the pure q-computer away I notice that my shield projectors aren't on me anymore. *Karino sighs* "well I guess I have to remake those too." I gather the leftover material from making the new q-computer and some torn-apart wooden foundation from a nearby building to make several strap-on quartz plates that are fifty percent quartz and fifty percent gold deposit. Once I have them strapped on I get them up and running to see how they're functioning. _Aah. It's got that new shield smell. 'Lame!' what? Isn't it at least a little… 'LAME!' …fine._ Off to the distance there is what seems to be the sound of explosions. I look over and I see smoke coming from several different places. "hm…" I bring up a display from my q-computer so I can scan around to find out who's near me. "Oh! Ichigo and Rukia are fairly close." I head in their direction but while I'm on the way I nearly come into view of a girl that is using two giant bells attached by a length of fabric to fling fireballs at nearby buildings. I wait in a dark crevice in the ally that I'm in so that she doesn't see me as she passes by. Once she's a safe distance away I stand up and get going again. I get to the roof of the building that was across from the alleyway that I was in when I get a weird reading from my q-computer. I look behind me and I see a man with long fingernails and shadowing around his eyes who is staring at me. I decide to make a run for it, but before I can teleport away I'm frozen in place. "w-what?" I manage to blurt out in my confusion. "I honestly didn't expect a human to have a zanpakuto." The man says as he comes closer to me. Thoughts of what could be about to happen play out as a movie reel before my eyes. When he's within arms length of me he strikes his hand into my chest. I scream in agony as he rips something from me and takes a few steps back with it. After I become coherent enough to take notice of what is in front of me I become frozen again, but this time with shock. I stare directly at a boy with short smooth brown hair with baggy shorts, a light brown hoody, and a pair of sandals. He has small furry brown ears atop his head, and a fluffy brown tail trailing behind him. "K-Konryo?" I ask, really pleading for an explanation. He looks at me with such contempt that I become unsure whether what's going on is real or not. Before I can find out, I pass out from the horror and confusion overwhelming me.

**Normal POV:**

Konryo walks into a damp cave where the other soul-reapers' zanpakutos are staying in. "hey, who's the new kid?" Kazeshini exclaims as Konryo comes into view of the rest of them. Hyzukimaru jumps down from a ledge and lands near Konryo. "Come on, this thing's just a pipsqueak!" he says as he picks Konryo up by the strings of his hoody and keeps him in the air. Konryo yells and complains in protest as he struggles to get free. Muramasa walks into the room from where Konryo came in and looks at Hyzukimaru, then at the rest of the zanpakuto. "Konryo is the zanpakuto of a human named Karino. Set him down please." Muramasa says as he looks back to Hyzukimaru. "Tch…" Hyzukimaru scoffs as he drops Konryo to the ground. Once Konryo is on his feet he brushes himself off and walks past Hyzukimaru. Once he's a few feet away he turns back to Hyzukimaru and stands with a smile on his face. "EXPLOSION" Konryo yells as an explosive detonates on the back of Hyzukimaru. Hyzukimaru is blasted onto his face, and as he gets up he looks around angrily for Konryo. "Agh! Where'd that little runt go!" Hyzukimaru says, annoyed. Konryo is already sitting in a corner and staring at the small waterway at the one end of the cave. As Hyzukimaru storms out of the place, Konryo looks around from where he's sitting. Once Konryo sees Sode No Mi Shiryuki he gets a short look of surprise on his face, but then he huffs and turns back to the water. "Karino is certainly in for a surprise." Konryo mumbles to himself.

**Karino's POV:**

As I become conscious I'm immediately aware of pain coursing through my whole body. I try to open my eyes, but that effort is only met with more pain. I manage to get one eye partially open and everything at first is blurry to me. Soon I'm able to notice that there are others around me in beds as well. _I must be in the fourth company medical barracks._ I hear a couple of people rushing over to me. I try to speak, but my face feels like it's made of stone. By now there are three people around me, one of which I recognize as the fourth company captain. _Ugh, she looks concerned. I hope that I'm okay… scratch that, I'm fucking paralyzed! CLEARLY there's something wrong with me._ The other two appear to administer something to me and I go back under. Though, I start to hear footsteps echoing in my head and I still only see blackness. After a little bit the sound stops, this makes me relieved, until I get a familiar feeling. At first I don't recognize it, but then I hear screaming coming from what sounds like my wife. "SONYA…" I stammer as I'm jolted awake, but this time I'm inside my spiritualization chamber. I look down to my left hand and at a light blue quartz ring on my third finger. "Sonya…" I say, this time more reminiscently. _Wait a minute? How am I inside…_ before I can think of what's going on I'm struck with pain jolting through my entire body like I'm being electrocuted. Then I'm back to a sightless, soundless setting for the duration of the pain, though I have no comprehension of the length of time it lasts before I'm left at stagnancy again. _Agh damn it!_ After what seems like forever I start to sense movement. Though, it's as if I'm on a rollercoaster and I can't see or hear anything. _What the fuuuuck!_ I think as I feel like I'm being thrust every-which way. Suddenly I'm met with a halting stop which leaves me feeling like I ran directly into a brick wall at a high speed. I get a ringing in my head as I start to hear conversations between people around me. My vision sets in very blurry but starts to get clearer as I wait. My thoughts progressively get foggier as my vision clears up. By the time I can see what is around me I don't even remember what had just been happening.

**A/N:** just so that I can make sure that you know, I wan to say that I'm going in the direction of a flashback. I hope that it doesn't detract too much from the story for you… and since it's been a fairly significant time since I last updated (sorry about that) I'll put this up now and leave the flashback for the next chapter. And since I've taken so long with updating this I'll just have the next chapter be singularly a flashback so that I will continue with the story on the next chapter. Also, sorry about taking so long. I've been extremely busy this year and I don't have internet at home, so thanks for reading .

**A/N:** please comment and/or review, I need the input.

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